Senator Michaelia Cash is expected to give evidence on Friday in the court case looking to the rads carried out by the AFP on the AWU. Picture: AAP

Crime

Cash’s top adviser behind union leak

by AAP

12th Feb 2019 11:16 AM
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SENATOR Michaelia Cash's chief of staff Ben Davies was the source of a controversial leak to the media about imminent police raids at Australian Workers' Union offices.

David de Garis - a former media adviser to the Federal Small Business Minister who admitted leaking those details to journalists - was ordered to name his source after a ruling by Federal Court Justice Mordecai Bromberg.

Senator Michaelia Cash’s chief of staff was the source of a controversial leak to the media about imminent police raids at Australian Workers’ Union offices. Picture Gary Ramage

Mr Bromberg said that it was in the interest of justice for the information to be revealed.

The union is taking legal action against the Registered Organisations Commission, arguing the federal police raids on the union's Melbourne and Sydney headquarters in October 2017 as part of a commission investigation were politically motivated and therefore unlawful.

David de Garis - a former media adviser to Senator Cash - was ordered to name his source after a ruling by Federal Court Justice Mordecai Bromberg. Picture: AAP

The AFP raids were part of an investigation into donations by the AWU to the activist group GetUp! a decade earlier.

Senator Cash is expected to give evidence on Friday.

She has repeatedly denied knowing about the raids before seeing them on TV despite her former media adviser admitting to tipping off journalists.

The AWU believes it was instigated by Senator Cash in a bid to hurt the union and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.